ST. LOUIS – Delegates in the St. Louis area are heading to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month and are jumping on the presidential bandwagon for Vice President Kamala Harris in droves the day after President Joe Biden exited the race.
Vice President Harris announced she is now seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for president Sunday. She made a stop at a campaign office in President Biden’s home state of Delaware, where staffers were chanting her name, “Kamala! Kamala! Kamala!”
The winds of change were blowing all the way through Missouri and Illinois, stirring up delegates who will meet in Chicago ready to announce their nominee for president.
“(There’s) just a giant jolt of energy among Democrats,” St. Louis Congressman and Chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party Russ Carnahan said. He is also a convention delegate.
“Absolutely, you can feel it. There’s an energy in the Democratic Party that we didn’t have prior to Sunday,” St. Clair County State Sen. Christropher Belt said, who’s also a convention delegate.
Both are following President Biden’s lead in backing Harris.
“The last time there was this much energy was in 2008, when Obama and Biden were running for the first time,” Carnahan said. “This dramatically changes the political landscape nationally, and I think in Missouri.”
He predicts the new momentum may carry into Missouri statewide races. All of Missouri’s statewide offices are held by Republicans and Republican Donald Trump carried the state in the last two presidential races.
“She’s the Democratic Party’s leading messenger when it comes to reproductive freedoms and in this election, she will do a great job of prosecuting the case against Trump in his role in overturning Roe,” Sen. Belt said. “I am 200% on that wagon with her.”
In a campaign stop in his Ohio hometown, the new Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, cast Harris as a fill-in for a drop-out.
“Kamala Harris, who I guess is our vice presidential candidate officially, but I guess she’s running for president now because of Joe Biden,” he said.
That was not an issue in Delaware, where the public briefly heard from President Biden for the first time since he exited the race.
“I’m watching you, kid. I love ya,” he said to Harris.
“I love you, Joe,” she responded, crossing her hands over her heart.
The president was not with her in person in Delaware as he is still recovering from COVID, joining via conference call.
